Power, wealth, and position--all of these mean nothing to a character of
the oriental world if he is without honor. Honor is a reflection of his character
and the character of his family. It is a measure of worth in the society,
his dependability, his personal character, his trustworthiness, his
decency, and more. The honor of a family affects the honor of a character
and vice versa. With honor comes respect, power, influence, and position.
Without it, characters can expect disrespect, humiliation, and insults.

Honor is something the character earns through his actions, like experience points. Moreover, honor can
also be lost, depending on the actions of the character. In fact, honor is easier to lose than to gain so characters
must carefully consider the consequences of their actions. Breaking faith, treachery, cowardice, and unavenged
insults result in a loss of honor. Valiant deeds, self-sacrifice, mastery of skills, and keeping faith earn the
character honor. As the character gains honor he also gains better reactions on encounter rolls, gifts, and better
characters to replace honorable characters who have died.

Oriental honor is different from the honor of a paladin || cavalier. It is not a judgment of good and evil.
Characters with high honor are not necessarily good and those with low honor are not necessarily evil. A cruel
villain can possess high honor and a heroic samurai, through unfortunate circumstances, might possess low
honor. Honor is more a measure of the deeds accomplished by both the character and his family clan. It reflects
obedience, loyalty, talent, and success, qualities that can be held by any character regardless of alignment.
Players must keep track of the honor their characters gain or lose by recording honor points. At the end
of each adventure or major encounter the DM gives honor points to characters who carried themselves well and
takes them away from characters who acted dishonorably. Characters don't earn honor points for every
adventure they undertake, unlike XP. They must do something special to earn additional honor
points (or lose points).

Starting Honor

All characters start with a certain amount of honor. Those with family clans determine their starting
honor by comparing their family's base honor to their ability scores. Other characters' base honor is determined
by race, character class, and ability scores.

Characters with Family Clans:

A1. Start with the base honor determined by birth rank.

A2. Add or subtract any adjustments to the family's honor obtained from Table 39: Ancestry.
The final result is the family's honor and should be noted on the PC's record sheet under the heading "Family Honor."
(Always use a pencil because these numbers can change during the game.)

A3. If the family honor is a negative number, raise it to 0.

B1. Next, using the family honor as a base, add any bonuses due to the character from birthrights.

B2. Finally, add in the lowest ability score of the character.

This is the PC's starting honor and is noted on the record sheet under "Character Honor."

<headings>

Characters without Families: For characters without family clans,
consult Table 41 to find the base honor for the character, according to his character class or race.
To this base, add in the character's lowest ability score.
This is the player character's starting honor; note it on his character sheet.

Table 41: INITIAL HONOR

Character Race/Class	Base Honor
Shukenja	20
Sohei	15
Kensai	25
Bushi	10
Hengeyokai	10
Wu Jen	15
Yakuza	1d20 + 20

Gaining and Losing Honor

During the course of play a character's actions can cause him to gain or lose honor points. Some classes
are more concerned than others with honor, and characters from those classes may gain or lose more honor for
the same action than someone from another character class. A samurai's honor, for example, fluctuates a lot
more than that of a wu jen or a shukenja. No character can have more than 100 points of honor.

Honor points always are awarded by the DM. Players can make reasonable protests if they feel the DM
overlooked something but the DM's judgment . is final. Honor points are normally awarded at the end of an
adventure. On long adventures, however, the DM can award honor points after a major encounter or deed or at
the end of each game session. Typical honor point awards are listed on Table 42: Honor Awards, organized by
character classes.

It is impossible to cover every situation that might occur. The DM must rely on his judgment, using this
list as a guideline, in situations that aren't covered.

Altering Family Honor

The actions of a single PC can affect the fortunes of his family clan for good or ill. Noble,
heroic, and successful characters elevate their family name while craven, lying, and treacherous characters drag
their family name down with them.

If a player character's honor is 10 points higher than his family's honor, the base honor of the family is
increased by one point. The same thing happens at 20, 30, 40, etc., additional points. This bonus can be earned
only once for each group of 10 points.

The bonus can be earned even if character already has as much honor as he can ever earn. In this case,
honor awards are made only to determine whether the family's base honor increases. In other words, the
character has reached his pinnacle but his deeds still reflect well upon his clan.

At the other end of the scale, any character who loses five or more points for a single action causes a
loss of one honor point from his family's base honor. His shameful behavior has made a lasting blot on the
family name.

In either case when a character changes the honor of his family, all other family members have their
honor increased or decreased by the same amount as the family. Thus, the actions of family members can affect
each other's honor.

Effects of Honor

As a character gains and loses honor, certain advantages and disadvantages automatically come into
play. Some of these are quite beneficial, others are extremely grave.

First and foremost, if any character, no matter what race or character class, ever allows his honor to fall
below zero, that character is out of the game. The player should crumple up the character record sheet and toss
it away.

If a character of the samurai || kensai classes allows his honor to fall below the current base honor of his
family, he loses his status as samurai or kensai (samurai become ronin and kensai are treated as bushi). He has
dishonored his family.

A character of any class whose honor falls below his family's honor or below the base given for his class
immediately incurs a -20% modifier on all NPC reaction rolls with members of the family. This negative
modifier remains in effect until the character's honor again equals or exceeds the family's honor or the character
class's base honor.

For every 10 honor points a character has above his family's or character class's base honor, that
character gains a + 5% bonus on NPC reactions with members of the same family or organization. Remember,
however, that as the character's honor increases his family's or group's honor also increases, so it becomes
harder and harder to impress them.

When a character earns 75 honor points, he receives a gift from a powerful lord known to him (a
daimyo, an important official, etc.). The gift is appropriate to the level and class of the character. A 6th level
samurai might receive an ornate sword scabbard, while a 12th level wu jen might be given a miscellaneous
magical item. In no case will characters be given gifts that might pose a threat to the NPC lord. The player
character, of course, is expected to return the compliment somehow.

When a character receives 80 honor points, his name begins appearing in popular songs and stories as a
minor or local hero of mention. In addition, there is a 10% chance per week that a notorious foe (human or
otherwise) starts boasting of his ability to vanquish the character. Such boasts automatically reach the
character's ears. Should the character refuse to seek out and defeat the foe, he suffers a loss of 10 honor points.

When a character reaches 90 honor points he is invited to come and serve one of the most powerful lords of the
land (the DM decides who). The character is under no obligation to accept. Refusal, however, angers the lord
and the character suffers a-10% penalty on all reaction rolls with that lord and his followers thereafter.
When a character reaches 95 honor points he is considered a great hero, suitable material for epic songs, lengthy
folktales, and the like. The character automatically gains a + 10% bonus on all reaction rolls with characters of
lesser rank and a -10% penalty with those creatures of opposite alignment or belief. Essentially, those who
might like the character are more disposed to treat him with respect, while those who dislike the character are
even more likely to hate or detest him for his superior qualities.

The final benefit of honor comes into play when a character dies and is not returned to play.
In this case, the player's next character gains bonuses to his dice rolls.
Subtract the family's or character class's base honor from the character's honor at the time of his death
(including any points the character earned for dying gloriously). Divide the remainder by 10, rounding fractions
down. This is the number of bonus points the player can use when creating a new character. These points can be
added to ability score or hit point dice rolls however the player sees fit. No more than three points can be added
to any single roll, and the bonus cannot raise the dice roll above the racial or class maximum. The bonus cannot
be saved and used later in the character's career.

The character created with this bonus can be of any race, class, or family.
The player can create any type of character he wants, so long as the ability score requirements are met normally.

Table 42: HONOR AWARDS

All Characters	Points awarded
Accused of crime (innocent or not)	-4
Acquiring property	+1
Avenging murder of family member	+5
Banished	-5
Being taken prisoner	-10*
Breaking an oath	-4*
Completing a great deed	+5
Convicted of a crime	-10
Defeating an ancestral enemy (ancestral feud family)	+2*
Defeating a superior opponent of same character class	+1
Defeating monsters	+1 per 2000 x.p.**
Fulfills an oath	+2
Fulfills family debt	+7
Giving a gift of value to NPC	+1
Granting a favor to NPC	+1
Heroic death	+10
Losing a birthright	-5*
Losing a contest	-1
Losing to inferior opponent of same character class	-2
Making item of quality	+1
Marrying into higher birth rank family	+1
Murder of a family member	-3
Rash or improper social behavior	-2
Reaching name level	+2
Refusing a contest	-2
Requesting a favor	-2
Saving the life of another at great risk to own life	+5
Serving a powerful lord	+2*
Treason	-30
Winning a contest	+1

* These awards are doubled for samurai characters.
** This applies only to points earned for defeating a single -- creature.
What is the bushi honor loss for
proficiency with a ninja weapon?
 

Q: It's not listed on page 42 of Oriental
Adventures.

A: The honor loss is - 1, the same as for
kensai.
(121.20)
 
 

Shukenja	-
Healing, curing, or restoring NPCs	+1
Removing a curse	+1
Taking life	-3

 

Hengeyokai	-
Being recognized as hengeyokai when in human form	-1
Pepetrate humiliating prank on enemy	+1

 

Kensai	-
Losing a duel vs. NPC	-3
Overindulgence in food or drink	-2
Proficiency in a ninja-preferred weapon (unless specialized weapoin)	-5
Refusing a duel vs. NPC	-5
Using a ninja-preferred weapon (unless specialized weapon)	-1
Victorious against overwhelming odds	+3
Winning a duel vs. NPC	+1

 

Ninja	-
Completing a ninja mission	+3
Failing a ninja mission	-10
True identity discovered	-30
Unnecessary deaths in course of mission	-5

 

Samurai	-
Entering into debt	-3
Fleeing a fight	-10
Forming an alliance with an NPC family	+1
Gaining a court proficiency	+1
Leading a losing force into battle	-4
Leading a victorious force in battle	+3
Losing item of quality	-5
Losing magical item	-10
Proficiency in a ninja-preferred weapon	-10
Refusing one's lord	-3
Taking a bribe	-1
Taking prisoners	+1
Using a ninja-preferred weapon	-3

 

Sohei	-
Defeating sohei of other monastery	+1
Forming alliance with NPC samurai family	+1
Losing monastery's minyan	-10

 

Spirit Folk	-
Allowing damage to occur to lifeforce (bamboo and river spirit folk only)	-5

 

Wu Jen	-
Making a magic item	+2

 

Yakuza	-
Being discovered by police	-2
Claiming territory from an opposing yakuza organization	+5
Being defeated by a commoner	-3
Selling stolen goods	+ 1 per 100 ch'ien

 

garhkal wrote:
On the Honor part. The best part of it i liked was the class specific rules for honor gains and losses.
 

Ah Dang!

I forgot to address that part 

The system is really specific to a campaign based solely on the Far East and does not translate well to any other style of campaign.
So i concur with your assessment, and believe thay honor is better ignored in campaigns that extend beyond the Oriental culture setting.

Cheers,
Gary
 

garhkal wrote:
What about the opposide. Where the Gagin pcs, adventure into the orient?
Would they then get honor?
Have to worry about it?
 

If the foreign PCs wish to be respected they muct indeed learn the cultural demands seek honor, and be concerned about loss of face.
Likely they will fail miserably, of course.

Cheers,
Gary